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"A Question of Will"

(Washington Post) - Editorial Mr. Bush is right in insisting that Saddam Hussein face the "serious consequences" unanimously agreed upon by the UN Security Council in the event Iraq rejected a "final opportunity" to disarm. Though they agreed to those terms, France and Russia refused to respect them. In recent weeks their diplomats did their best to transform the UN's attempt to eliminate a rogue state's chemical and biological weapons into a global debate about the U.S. and its leadership - and to a large extent, they succeeded. Whether their underlying intention was to protect the Iraqi regime or to create a political mechanism for containing the U.S., they made it impossible for the Security Council to act effectively. As Mr. Bush said last night: "This is not a question of authority, it is a question of will." Iraqis, even more than Americans, have much to gain from the downfall of a tyrant guilty of some of the most terrible human rights crimes of the past half-century. A regime and an arsenal that have threatened and destabilized the Middle East for two decades can be eliminated; prisoners can be released, ethnic minorities freed from brutal repression, war criminals brought to justice, and a polity based on torture and murder replaced by one that respects basic political and human rights. That is the kind of cause that the United States has always embraced; it is a cause worthy of the sacrifices that will now be asked of American men and women in uniform.
2003-03-18 00:00:00
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